Shipped Down a New Path
by kazikamikaze24
Summary: All it takes is a random interjection by something for one's life to change. One simple, little change, could change the world for everyone, most of the time for the worst. For Kakuyoku Fubuki and Uzumaki Naruto, on the other hand, this change will change the Elemental Nations forevermore.
1. Chapter 1

A blond haired boy was running as far as he could from the angry meat merchant he stole the ribs from. He was so hungry, and he saw the man place them next to the garbage can, so why would he be mad since he was going to throw them away? Now, if it were anyone else, most people would be saddened at seeing such a young, starved boy having to steal in order to survive; however, this boy wasn't just a simple boy. He has a legacy so grand, yet hidden in the shadows of time and secrecy, that he only known as one title.

Uzumaki Naruto, the reincarnation of the Kyuubi.

In truth, he was only a Jinchuuriki, a person who is forced to host a Bijuu or another spirit inside them via Fuuinjutsu until the day they die. In exchange for this, most Jinchuuriki are able to use their Bijuu's chakra, unique special jutsu, as well as the extremely rare chance to use particular bloodline techniques. Jinchuuriki in Kumo were treated as normal civilians, those in Suna were forced to act as cold monsters, and Kiri had the most blood thirsty.

But this story isn't about _those_ Jinchuuriki. Its about Uzumaki Naruto, and how his whole world would change in one fell swoop.

If one little decision was never made, Naruto would of continued to run past a path that he never cared for. A path that went into the shipping warehouses, an area of Konoha that he didn't care for. What made him take that path was seeing Asamaki Ruji, one of the boys who bullied him in the ninja academy. He knew that if he was stopped at all, both the meat merchant and Ruji would take advantage to hurt him, causing him to take the unusual path.

"Get back here!" The merchant's voice was easily heard by the young boy, causing him to run even faster down the path, hoping to find some place to hide. His prayer was heard, as he saw a rectangular hole on the side of a building, and jumped right into it. This hole, if he had any time to examine it, was actually a supply shoot, used to drop premade packages to the workers so they could assort the necessary items into their proper boxes. It all happened too fast for the boy, as he felt the cold steel of the assembly line forced him into a wooden crate, causing him to smash the ribs he had in the process, before noticing that the light he once had was suddenly gone. The last thing that Naruto saw were many seals glowing an enchanting blue before he felt no more.

* * *

Baru was a simple civilian who worked for most of his life. He was currently forty, had a wonderful wife and a very happy child who wanted to work with him when he grew up. Baru never liked the life of a ninja, since his older brother was killed during a raid from the Anti-Bloodline faction, and hoped to keep his kid away from the deadly life of a ninja. Today was his last day at work for the month, as he was taking his wife and kid on a trip to Suna to visit an oasis that was said to have the most magnificent spa in all of the elemental nations, all thanks to the Hokage keeping his place of work afloat.

Baru works for a special packaging plant, special since it used state of the art seals written by two of the Sannin, Jiraiya and Orochimaru, as well as some of the less restricted seals of the Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato. It was due to these seals that they had to charge quite a high price for their services, but it was thanks to these seals that every package ever shipped was fresh, in perfect condition, and safe from being opened by anyone who wasn't the one who ordered the package. As he was walking out from the bathroom, he noticed a single box that seemed forgotten by one of the previous workers.

"Damn those new guys. Always rushing out of here without putting away their crap." He muttered as he picked up the crate, and nearly dropped it due to its weight. "And they overloaded it. The bastards!" It took a bit longer than he would of liked, but he placed the overloaded crate on the shipping pallet where it would be sent to Kiri to be placed on the ship taking it to its destined location.

Yuki no Kuni

* * *

Kakuyoku Fubuki wished that she didn't have to complete these pesky D-ranked missions, especially with her teammates constantly trying to distract her. They weren't truly ninja in her opinion, simply a large boar and a sneaky, horny viper waiting to try and strike for their claim at glory and fame. Then again, she could understand WHY they were trying to distract her, since it was boring pulling off crates from a ship just for some civilians could ship them off to the castle.

"Emergency! We have an emergency!" Fubuki turned to see one of the workers carrying a starved, blond haired boy in his arms. The boy wore a thick orange jumpsuit, perfect for the cold weather, she thought, but it was a line of clothing she was sure wasn't worn in Yuki no Kuni, or else she would of seen more children his age wearing it. She handed her crate to one of the other workers and hurried over to the worker who had the kid in his arms.

"How'd you find him?" Fuyuguma Mizore, her chubby teammate who had short, spiky purple hair and a dull expression on his face. He was the muscle of the team, and was able to brake human sized ice glaciers with his strength alone, though he was also the easiest to defeat. He lacked speed and the ability to think under pressure, making her wonder if he would of survived under another team.

"Did he happen to just wonder into the warehouse hoping to sneak some supplies away?" Rouga Nadare, on the other hand, was the opposite of Mizore. He was thin, and strong in his own right, but much faster than him, and could think of several strategies during stressful situations. His cold eyes and pale purple hair made it hard for people to think of him as anything but a sneaky guy, but even he, despite being an attention hog, had his humble moments.

"No," the worker began, "I found him in one of the Konoha crates. Its a miracle that he was kept in a stasis crate, or else he would of died without food or water to drink!" Fubuki leaned over and looked at the kid, who simply looked as if he was sleeping at this point. He looked thin, much thinner than most boys did, and was tanner as well, though she couldn't help but to wonder what he was doing in a crate of all things.

"Do you guys want to take him to the hospital, or would you rather I do it?" Seeing neither of her teammates offering their services, she asked them. Mizore chuckled and pointed at her. She knew by the smile on his face that he was going to be lazy and let her do the task.

"You are the fastest of us, so you can do it." His words were true, as she was able to currently outrun most of the Chuunins, and was most accurate when it came to throwing kunai and shuriken. She also had an unusual skill for noticing genjutsu, even though she had no talent in creating her own, allowing her to be more of a supporting ninja within their team.

"I agree with that. Don't worry about us Fubuki-chan, we got everything handled on this end." Fubuki simply glared at Nadare before carefully taking the kid out of the worker's grasp and made a sprint for the hospital.

Due to the cold temperature of the region, it was common to see young children in the hospital waiting for a chance to see a doctor or a nurse. What wasn't common was to see a trained ninja like herself waiting for a doctor's report upon the unknown kid that was found earlier. Due to her status as a Yuki ninja, she was able to ensure that the kid had the best doctor to keep him stable and healthy, though she didn't like having to threaten the secretary to get such a service.

She looked up from the messenger scroll that was given to her by a summoned owl, her sensei's to be exact, and noticed that the doctor was signaling for her to enter the kid's room. When she walked in, he sealed the room, signaling that whatever the man had to say would be very important to the society as a whole.

"Let me introduce myself. I'm Kunosa Haru, and I thank you for bringing the child to the hospital when you did. He was suffering from lack of food, and its a miracle that he was living before you even found him. There were signs that his body was beginning to eat itself from the inside, a shame something like this would happen to a kid..."

"Well, that's good to hear and all sir, but I don't see as to why that's reason to keep this information confidential."

"But you see, I haven't finished all of the things I found out about the child. The most important thing is his chakra nature." Chakra nature was a very important thing for Yuki ninja, as it meant that certain ninjas were automatically forced into different career paths, especially those who never completely succeeded the academy training. The most known chakra nature for Yuki were those with Suiton and Fuuton chakra, who were kept on the shores of Yuki no Kuni to keep oncoming glaciers away from the port and carrier ships, as well as to keep invaders away by creating a freezing windstorm.

Katon users were sought for ice destruction, mostly in order to level new areas for future buildings and shelters, though they were much useful than the failed academy graduates who failed the ninja test too many times or those who simply dropped out of the academy as a whole. Those Katon users were sent to the Heating Duct, an underground facility that was constantly releasing heat for the capital of Yuki no Kuni to use. This was inspired by Kazahana Sousetsu, who sought to melt the ice in Yuki no Kuni to combat the high death rate their country had. The only way to escape this punishment was to train in the arts of a second chakra element, since the current leader of the country, Kazahana Dotou, sought to have enough ninja to become one of the main ninja villages.

Doton users were rare to come across, and those who had it were taken away from the roster and had to train to use both Doton and Suiton chakra, hopefully to recreate any form of Mokuton. Sadly, none of the current Doton users were able to successfully merge the two chakras together, mostly since they ended up creating Youton, and Dotou didn't dare go to Konoha to hire their only known Mokuton user, as it would cost nearly three years worth of S-ranked pay to hire him to create a small town, let alone the additional fees to supply the area with trees, fruits, and spare wood.

"You see, his chakra nature is astounding, as it tore the chakra paper in half, signaling wind nature, a rare chakra nature from Konoha, which I assume he is from, given the details you've told me, but of Suiton as well. After seeing this, I gave him a standard chakra paper, rather than the normal child type we're forced to give children before they become ninja, and I was able to find out something rather interesting." Fubuki nodded, though found herself curious as to what the difference between the two papers would show.

Chakra paper is a tool used to safely detect the chakra nature of those able to use chakra. The older the tree used to make the paper, the more "descriptive" it would become with the chakra it would absorb. This was important, since it would be the older sheets of chakra paper the medics would use to see if any of the ninja had the chance to combine two or more chakra natures to create something else. Chakra paper that are cut from younger trees could still be used, but they'd show the strongest element the ninja could use, rather than every element possible.

"His Fuuton and Suiton chakra are evenly matched, allowing for Hyoton chakra to be created, as it showed signs of ice around the two. What astounded me more was that there is a strong sign of Katon chakra, making it possible for him to use Futton and Shakuton, though we'd have to obtain the necessary scrolls from Kiri and Suna so he could be properly trained in the arts. His chances of being able to use Doton and Raiton jutsu are very low, but possible to increase as he grows older and practices a technique or two every year. Then we have this." Haru lifted the kid's shirt, showing a seal. A very complex sealing array that Fubuki couldn't make heads or tails of, other than the kanji for storage being overlapped by something else.

"What is this?"

"I don't know for certain, but I do know that, unless we get it checked out by a seal master, we'll never know more than the fact that it is securely in place. I'd like to keep him for a few days, if that is okay with you mam." Fubuki looked at the kid once more, wondering what a kid like himself was doing inside of a crate, before a thought came to mind.

"What is going to happen to him Haru-san?"

"Well, since he is an unknown at this point, he can be claimed by the Daimyou as a ward and sent anywhere, may it be as a prisoner, a soldier, or a civilian. Once he awakes and we get more information, he could be shipped back to Konoha, or may decide to leave and do whatever he wishes. Everything changes when he wakes up." She talked to the doctor for a few more minutes, getting some general information from him about the boy's condition, and was told that everything he had on him was placed in the desk next to the bed. As soon as the man left, she opened the desk and noticed a wallet in the shape of a frog's head, and opened it. When she saw that it was filled with some crumbled bills, she was ready to close it back up, until she noticed a white tag on the bottom of the wallet, and removed the bills. With the bills out of the way, she was rewarded with a name, a name that, from this moment on, would change her fate, as well as his own.

She had discovered Uzumaki Naruto.

-Author Notes-

So I recently got twenty seven different mangas for twenty five dollars on Craigslist and, one of those mangas, was an ani-manga of the first Naruto movie. I read it, didn't like the overall images within it, especially since many of those images didn't show more impact, but I liked Fubuki for some odd reason, and have something planned for her lineage. I figured, ya know, since I like her, I'd just read a Naruto/Fubuki crossover, only to not see one in any language at all. I recall seeing him screw her in some fics, but nothing more, so I figured I'd start this side project.


	2. Chapter 2

Naruto was familiar with hospitals, since for the first four years of his life he lived in one. He knew what kind of scent it would have, mostly that of chemicals and scented spray cans, and, based upon scent alone, knew he was in a different hospital. This hospital had the scent of charcoal, something the Konoha hospitals never had, and found himself feeling hotter than before. As his body became more aware, he noticed that there was snow falling outside his window, an impossibility, since it was currently July, and the paint wasn't light blue. The paint of the room was a rather dull silver, though this also made him notice that there was a doctor that was watching him from the door. The man wore a more bulky doctor's uniform, lab coat and all, though what seemed strange was his dark brown skin, a trait he heard was only seen in Kumo.

"Hm, took you five minutes to notice me, but that is better than I could of hoped for, as most people tend to see me about fifteen, maybe even nineteen minutes of waking up. I've actually done a study to see if its due to-"

"Mister, who are you?" His words caused the man to stop talking, and coughed to cover up the look of shock on his face.

"I'm your temporary doctor, Kunosa Haru, and I'd like to ask you a few questions, if that is okay with you." Naruto nodded, knowing that he was in good hands, since all the doctors in Konoha treated him as if he was their child. "Alright, what is your name?"

"Uzumaki Naruto."

"Your age and date of birth?"

"I'm seven, and I was born on October tenth."

"Have you been trained to use your chakra?"

"Nothing too much. I'm able to float several leaves upon myself, since I have a ton of chakra, enough to rival multiple Anbu Jiji said!" Naruto noticed that Haru had a confused expression on his face. Didn't he know what Anbu were? Jiji told him that every village had their own Anbu force!

"Do you know that you're in Yuki no Kuni at the moment?"

"Nani! How'd I get here? Was I kidnapped?"

"Doubtful." Haru stated before flipping a page on his notepad. "You were found in a crate on one of the ships that had a shipment from Konoha, and would of died if it wasn't for the stasis seals on the crate, as well as one of our ninja bringing you here."

"T-this is..." Naruto looked outside of the window once more, noticing how the snowflakes seemed to dance with the wind. He never had the opportunity to leave the village, mostly since he was an orphan and didn't have a way to pay for his travel papers, and he couldn't leave with Jiji to other villages since they were very important. To him, this was something that was very cool, since he doubted anyone else in his class ever been to Yuki no Kuni, let alone knew where it even was!

Mind you, he didn't know where it was either, but that was beside the point.

"This is what, too much to take in? Saddening? Horrible beyond anything you could think of?"

"No, AWESOME! I wanna see what its like outside of the village, eat some ramen, and maybe see some ninja! Maybe I could learn something to help me become the fifth Hokage!" Naruto couldn't stop himself from laughing at Haru's expression of shock and horror, possibly due to his outlandish reaction to his current situation. He was left alone after a few more questions, allowing him to watch the snow outside some more, something that seemed to keep him content from screaming out due to boredom, until he heard the door to his room open. He turned to see a man with a block-like head who had long brown hair, a sketched smile upon his face, and wore a set of formal robes he saw people from the Hyuuga clan wear. After the man took a few steps in, three more people stepped in, and each wore a similar light blue uniform that seemed insulated to protect them from the cold.

The first man was slightly shorter than the royal, and had short, dark purple hair with a chubby face that reminded him of Chouji from school, except without a hand constantly reaching for chips. It was easy to tell that he could seriously hurt someone with a punch, but it also made him wonder if he was a big softy on the inside, or if he was as stupid as Kiba.

The second guy reminded him of the lame harem loving otaku he would see in the mangas he'd swipe out of the library every once in a while, though he had to admit he had some wicked looks with his teal eyes and light purple hair. He didn't have anything in terms of strength, which meant that he either had skills with ninjutsu, or could be something rare, like a genjutsu expert or a weapon user.

Then there was the girl, who wore a hat that went past her jaw, covering most of her head, as well as had two spots so her pink hair could pop out to be pigtails. Her shirt, unlike the first two, reminded him of a Chinese dress he often saw a girl in his village wear all the time, though this lead to him thinking of what her specialty could be. Was it healing, genjutsu, or taijutsu? She could be a civilian trained ninja, since she had pink hair and greenish eyes lake Haruno Sakura, a fellow student, and those traits were apparently rare to have.

"Ah, I'm glad to see that you're awake young man." The royal spoke, holding a tone of false happiness Naruto was used to hearing. That wasn't to say that Naruto was going to dislike the guy or anything! All it meant was that he would be more cautious, hoping to see if there would be something that would mean his death. "I heard we had a visitor of Konoha, a rarity due to the harsh conditions of our land, and I found myself intrigued to meet you myself. I'm Kazahana Dotou, the Daimyou of Yuki no Kuni, and you are young Uzumaki Naruto correct?"

"Hai. Are they your personal ninja bodyguards sir?" Naruto asked with a big smile on his face. This made Dotou smile and nod.

"No, they are a special ninja team. Kakuyoku Fubuki was the one who brought you here to be treated after you were discovered. She and her teammates were doing a D-ranked mission when they came across you, so it is she who you should thank." Naruto did just that, though he wondered why the two guys frowned at the Daimyou's words.

"So, not that I'm not happy to meet the Daimyou of a village, which is a first for me, why are you here? Did I break a law by being here? Am I to be sent back to Konoha? Did I cause you trouble with Jiji?" Dotou began to laugh, a reaction that seemed to surprise the three ninja behind him. Was the man a serious man while he worked, or did he simply deal with idiots like Jiji, who often complained about the civilian council and their constant talks of cutting down the training fields in order to make more parks and apartment complexes.

"You are a smart boy, that is for sure!" Dotou took a breath and pulled out a scroll out of his sleeve. "Name: Uzumaki Naruto. Age: seven. Birthplace: Konohagakure no sato. Status: Missing. Ranking: Civilian. Summary: Uzumaki Naruto an orphan who is rather disliked by most of the civilians and some elder ninjas within the village for something unknown. Many have spoken about how much of a menace he is, last seen July twenty second enter Konoha's shopping district. A search was placed for three days to find Uzumaki Naruto, only to be put to an end when the Hokage ended the search. This was what I could find out about you from a friend in Konoha itself, and I was wondering if you would like to become a resident of Yuki no Kuni."

"You want something from me." Naruto hastly responded. The gleem in the man's eyes was the same he'd see out of Mizuki-sensei or one of the merchants that told him the price of an item that was much different from what was written on its case. The smile on Dotou's face never left, worrying him, but the looks on the ninja's faces made him wonder if there was something wrong with how their Daimyou was acting.

"Oh? Care to explain this thought young one?"

"Gladly, dattebayo!" Naruto pointed to the scroll the man pulled out. "You want me to stay here for something I either possess or could bring. You might even use me as a bargaining tool to get something from the Hokage, or to shovel coal or something you could think of. I'm only a beginning academy student with some knowledge of chakra control, something I'm sure the doctor told you about, so just come out with it! Tell me what ya really want from me."

"Okay," Dotou stated with a shrug, "I want you to become a resident of Yuki no Kuni and be trained in the ninja arts due to something you can do that not too many here can." Naruto widened his eyes at the news, as well as the two guys that stood next to Fubuki.

"Huh!" Naruto replayed what he heard in his head once more. He could do something that not too may here, in Yuki no Kuni, could do? Did that mean that it was more common outside of Yuki no Kuni, or is there something more to it?

"One of our standard procedures is to know the chakra nature of each academy student and ninja, as with time one's chakra nature can grow or dwindle. You possess enough of two chakra natures, Suiton and Fuuton, in order to use Hyoton jutsu, a rare branch of jutsu that can be done with those two natures. I, along with the special team behind me, are the only active Hyoton jutsu users who can create ice, rather than simply use the snow around us as a basis for ice jutsu. If you decide to become a member of Yuki no Kuni, you'll be personally trained to be a true Yuki ninja, be allowed to attend the academy, and given an allowance to do with as you please.

"If you wish to return home, I'll simply arrange for you to be sent back to Konoha. I won't force you to keep this information I've given you secret, nor will I bargain you as a way to get anything from your home. All I simply wish to do is help you Naruto. To do whatever it is you want to do." Naruto looked out the window once more, hoping to calm the sadness and worry that was growing inside him. The snow wasn't dancing though, as it simply fell towards the ground, causing him to grip the bed sheets. Could he leave Jiji? He wanted to become a Hokage in order to become respected by the civilians within Konoha, but here he could have a fresh start, and even get special training like kids got from clans did.

"Can...can I think about it for a few days?"

"Of course." Dotou nodded and waved Fubiki over. "You've been cleared from the hospital, which is astounding, since you've been in that crate for a bit over a month, and will be given a tour of the village by Fubiki and her teammates. I'll contact you on Sunday." With that, Dotou left, leaving Naruto alone with Fubiki and the others, creating an awkward feeling in the room.

"Fuyuguma Mizore." The plump ninja said with a small smile. The other man grinned and went over to him and ran his hand through his hair, causing Naruto to try and shake the man off him.

"Oh, you got spunk kid. I like that. The name's Rouga Nadare, best Hyoton user in the village, next to Dotou-sensei of course!" Naruto felt the weight of Nadare go away, and looked up to see Fubuki pulling the man off him.

"Lay off the kid! He still needs to get up and dressed so we can show him around!" Nadare muttered something Naruto couldn't hear as Fubuki turned to him and smiled. "Hi, I'm Kakuyoku Fubuki, genin of Yuki no Kuni." Naruto grinned and scratched the back of his neck.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, dattebayo!"

* * *

Its been a month since Uzumaki Naruto had gone missing from Konoha, and, as much as Sarutobi Hiruzen didn't want to admit it, Konohagakure no sato was actually better for the most part without his favorite person around. At least, when it cames to civilian concerns it was better without him. It was a disaster if someone were to look at it from a ninja's perspective.

Without Naruto around, no one was pranked on the grand scale that only he seemed to be able to do, meaning that property damage went to an all time low, and stores didn't have to raise the prices of their items in order to pay the damages for his pranks. Less people seemed to get drunk, and more profit seemed to pour from the civilians, which meant that the shinobi had more money to invest in research and development or medical training. Another thing he noticed was that there were more civilians registering their children to join the academy, nearly adding eighty percent to the shinobi forces by the time they were able to host the next Chuunin exam.

When seen from the shinobi perspective, they were currently missing the only remaining blood link to the Namikaze line. If they truly needed a link to the Uzumaki line, he would use Jiraiya's spy network to find a member and hopefully have them continue it without hassle. Naruto was more than just the Jinchuuriki to the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the most powerful of the Bijuu, who had a fast regeneration and a large chakra core without the Kyuubi adding its chakra to his own, he was someone who constantly put their village on their nerves. He was the fourth Hokage's legacy for a better world, and it is shameful on him to allow Naruto to disappear so easily.

Their shinobi forces became lax over the past several years, mostly due to them recovering from the Kyuubi attack, and allowed for multiple deaths and traitors to escape the village without much bodily harm, such as Orochimaru and Uchiha Itachi, the newest addition to the Bingo Book. Thanks to Naruto's pranks, the Chuunin and Anbu were kept scouting for any "Naruto Signs", a term which meant a possible prank lying in wait to be activated. He wouldn't deny that civilian ninja weren't as determined as clan raised ninja, but it seemed as if both clan raised and civilian made ninjas just didn't keep their guard up as much as ninjas of his generation had.

He was able to call a search for his favorite person, hoping to find him in one of his normal hiding spots. Thanks to Uchiha Itachi slaughtering most of the Uchiha clan, save for Uchiha Sasuke, his younger brother, Uchiha Mikoto, their mother, and Teyaki and Uruchi, an elderly couple that so happened to be on a date in the village at the time of the Uchiha Massacre, he had to recall all of the ninja he assigned to find Naruto and placed them on various missions and guard duities to insure that Itachi didn't try to kill the survivors. Oddly enough, there seemed to be a disturbance that the Barrier Team managed to track down to the Uchiha compound the night of the massacre, hinting at the possibility that Itachi had some help in the deed.

Without the Uchiha clan acting as the military police force, crime slowly shot up over the month, forcing him to place more shinobi to work the night shift instead of having them on missions. The Hyuuga clan were trying to claim that, as the only Doujutsu clan in the village, that they should now gain more money, ignoring the fact that the Uchiha clan still had four living members. The sudden change in the village was too much for him to handle, and he was hoping that Jiraiya would convince Tsunade to take the hat, since if not, he'd be forced to give the hat to someone else. He was getting older, and if he absolutely had to, he'd give the hat to Kakashi or Gai, rather than allow Danzo, possibly the only qualified person to take up the Hokage position at the moment.

"Hokage-sama." A soft, gentle voice awoke him from his deep thoughts and made him look to the speaker on his desk.

"Yes?"

"The envoy from Takigakure no Sato is here for you."

"Send him right up." Sarutobi glanced at the picture of him with a young, smiling Naruto who wore the Hokage hat and smiled. As long as he was alive, he'd make sure to make everyone in this village smile like that pure boy.

* * *

Its been a week since Naruto awoke in the hospital of Yuki no Kuni, and he found himself in a cold, steel mansion that, from what he saw from the photos they had of the village, seemed to make up the whole village. It made him wonder how the civilians ate, what they ate, and if they taught the same things to the Yuki ninja that the academy in Konoha did. He had to admit, seeing snow forever did seem much more pleasing than dealing with the intense heat he normally tolerated at his apartment.

Speaking of apartments, unlike the one he called home in Konoha, the room he was given in Yuki was complete with a tv, heated bed, a stove, washer and dryer set, and a bathroom. The apartment was big enough for him to invite two other people to live with him and have enough room for a child, making him wonder if the room he was given was special, or a standard room. There was so much he was glad to have about this room, such as the clean covers, the air conditioning, and the working electricity, that he forgot the most important part of the room.

**CRASH!**

"Rouga Nadare, DIE!" Naruto opened the door to his apartment and saw Nadare running away from Fubuki's room with a pair of pink panties in hand. Suddenly, a swarm of ice birds flew after him, flapping their wings to gain distance to kill, he considered, the man.

It was only when Fubuki and her team were done giving him a tour of the village that he discovered that he was placed in the same apartment complex with Fubuki and the others. Apparently, this complex, though mostly empty, was saved for those who were able to combine two or more of their chakra natures and create a new chakra. He remembered that having more than two chakra natures was extremely rare, so it made him wonder who in this building had three chakras at their disposal.

_'But you apparently have the ability to create Hyoton chakra, so you're one of them.'_ A thought popped into his mind, making him nod to himself. It was true, ever since he found out that he had Suiton, Fuuton, and Hyoton chakra at his disposal, he paid more attention to those jutsu types around him, and asked Fubuki if they could show him some of their Hyoton jutsu, since he never heard, let alone seen any until that day. Nadare was nice enough to create a small snow tiger and explained to him that most ninja who have Suiton and Fuuton chakra could shape the surrounding snow into a shape, but they couldn't do what he and his team could, which was to be able to naturally create ice and Hyoton chakra.

The next few days followed this pattern, allowing Naruto to get friendly with the snow ninja, the cooks at the large lunch hall, and was able to see some more of the ninja employed at Yuki no Kuni. For such a large complex, it confused him to see so few people actually living here, since it felt more like a prison than the comforting sensation he got while he was in Konoha. Just yesterday, Mizore took the time to teach him how to properly throw kunai and shuriken while Fubuki and Nadare took another D-ranked mission to offload some ships at the harbor, and he had fun learning with the guy.

"Oh, hey Naruto-chan." Naruto felt himself show Fubuki a light glare as she walked up to him. She smiled at him and rubbed the top of his head, causing him to fall into her stomach. Instantly, not only did he find himself blushing at the close contact; as soon as he felt that, he found himself pressed against the wall with a sudden chill rolling down his spine.

"Fu-Fubuki?" He looked up and saw a rather cruel smirk upon her face. Her eyes glowed with the promise of pain, something he saw whenever Sakura would hit him during the academy, and knew something was wrong.

"So you figured you'd try and sneak a feel huh Naru-chan?" Fubuki's tone made him shake his head rapidly. He didn't even know what sneak a feel meant! "If you wanted to get a feel, all you had to do was ask." She lowered herself, allowing him to see her slightly curved chest. It wasn't flat like the girls at the Academy, but it wasn't as big as some of the breasts he saw in the magazines at the book store in Konoha. Hers were about the size of an orange, and just the thought of them made him blush and shake his head in confusion. He wasn't going to be like Jiji with his perverted books!

"No, I don't wanna feel you! I don't even know what that means!" At that, Fubuki started laughing and pulled away from him with a grin on her face.

"Oh lighten up kid." Fubuki pulled him away from the wall and still wore that wicked grin on her face. "I'm only teasing you. Its time to see Dotou-sensei about your decision Naru-chan. I'll be the one taking you there via Shunshin." Shunshin, Naruto discovered, was a technique that made you appear at a location not too far from you, though you had to be quite familiar with its location before attempting the jutsu. The first time he felt the effects of the jutsu was when he was five, since one of the Anbu caught him after a prank and transported him directly to the Hokage's office.

Needless to say, the Anbu got a large dose of vomit all over his uniform that day.

"Oh, its today isn't it?" Naruto asked, and got a nod in return. Naruto simply nodded and gripped her right arm, allowing her to send them to Dotou's office. The sensation was as bad as he remembered it to be, but he didn't puke, a miracle in its own right, and saw Dotou sitting at his desk with a few scrolls in front of him.

"Ah, its good to see you again Naruto. I believe you know what we're here to discuss correct?" Naruto nodded and looked at the scrolls on the desk. Each of them were thick, possibly meaning that they were mission reports, or possibly jutsu scrolls. He knew what he wanted, he knew that there was only one response that he could honestly say that he was happy with.

"Dotou, I want to become a ninja of Yuki no Kuni." For a flicker of a moment, Naruto could of sworn that he saw Dotou's eyes glow an ominous black, but they were the normal brown a second later. 'It must of been the lighting in the room.' Naruto thought to himself as Dotou stood up and handed him a pair of keys and a blue scroll.

"Welcome to Yuki no Kuni Uzumaki Naruto. That scroll is what I want you to review for the remainder of this week. It has some basic chakra control exercises you are to practice at least an hour a day, as well as some simple academy jutsu you are to practice. Is that understood?"

"Hai sensei."

-Author Note-

Thank you, Rixxell Stryfe, for your wonderful review! Many things, both good and bad for Naruto, shall happen thanks to Dotou's dealings. I have some more unusual ideas that will be used in this story, some more than others, but the Sakura comparison will have a role in this tale. I'm not saying anything about the Kage Bunshin at this moment, since not many people outside of Konoha actually know the jutsu for Naruto to just learn from them in this situation.

I thank everyone who subscribed to the story, though I do hope I can hear your opinions of the story soon enough. As for Konoha's situation, Sarutobi's opinion is based off a realistic view point of what would truly happen if a young Uzumaki Naruto disappeared. The Uchiha Massacre was also changed just a bit, since I never understood what the benefit would be for killing two elderly people, other than for their blood and most likely dulled sperm samples. Konoha will be popping in the early chapters every now and again, so we'll be able to see how things change without Naruto.

Again, thank you readers for taking the time to read the story. Until next time!


	3. Chapter 3

Its been nearly two months since Uzumaki Naruto, civilian of Konoha, joined Yuki no Kuni as an apprentice of Kazahana Dotou, the Daimyou of Yuki no Kuni, and much had happened for the blond. He was becoming more of a regular sight amongst the citizens of Yuki no Kuni, and was practically welcomed with open arms and warm hearts by them, something he never thought he'd ever see in his entire life until he became Hokage. He was given multiple copies of his outfit, except they were pale blue and had the sympol of Yuki's headband printed upon his shoulders, as well as a traveler's cloak to insure that the snow wouldn't bother him if he was to walk upon the walls of the capital.

Those clothes were most useful when he began his week of self training, as both required Fuuton and Suiton chakra control steps required him to be outside. There was a normal chakra control exercise that he was to practice, wall climbing, as it made him channel his chakra to his feet so he could walk along walls and flat surfaces leading upwards, a good thing to learn in order to avoid floor traps in hideouts. Since Naruto couldn't walk up the walls inside the complex, mostly due to the walls in his room being covered in decorations that he honestly either couldn't reach or felt like putting back up again, he decided that he would practice wall walking by running down the walls of the hallways. This was the best decision Naruto made, though he could only make seven to thirteen steps before slipping off the wall.

When it came to practicing his elemental chakra outside, he decided to practice his Fuuton chakra control first, since it was supposedly the rarest of elements outside of Yuki no Kuni. In order for him to practice, he had to gather many icicles, the larger the better apparently, and focus his chakra to cut the icicle in half. The scroll stated several hints, such as he should picture himself using the chakra to make a slashing motion, or imagine someone ripping a piece of paper in half; however, by the end of the week, he found a method that helped him the best. If he pressed his chakra into a crevice where he managed to break the icicle from its base, his chakra would make a dent into the icicle, not because of the impact his chakra had, but because of how his chakra wedged itself between it, as well as how fast he channeled his chakra through it.

Suiton chakra, on the other hand, was much harder for him to manipulate, for it required him to gather a pile of snow and place it on steel, which was easy enough to do, considering the massive prison-like capital of Yuki no Kuni was mostly made of steel. Once done, he was to either force his chakra to liquify the snow, or to make the snow freeze. Normally, freezing the snow would signify that he was producing Hyoton chakra; however, from what the scroll Dotou-sensei gave him said, it meant that he was simply increasing the cold temperature from within the snow by injecting his chakra into it, meaning he wasn't actually producing Hyoton chakra. Too much of the Suiton chakra would make the snow explode, while too little of it would show nothing to show that he was forcing chakra into the pile.

By the end of the week, his training with the Suiton chakra took some interesting turns, as he found himself injecting too much of his chakra into the snow pile, forcing him to become a crappy snowman as a result. It was near the end of the third day of the week he decided to add more snow to the pile, making it about half his entire bodymass and height, and found that the chakra he put in wasn't enough for it to explode, and even got a heart sized clump of snow inside of the pile to freeze. He found himself having an easier time liquifying the snow, as he figured out that, by allowing his water chakra to coat the outside of the pile and press down on it, it forced it to melt. It wasn't the exact result he was looking for, but it was progress.

Also, during that week, he was able to catch Fubuki and her teammates some more, mostly due to Narade running down his hallway to bother Fubuki some more, and was able to sneak in some additional shuriken and kunai throwing with Mizore. Sadly, Fubuki and Nadare wouldn't teach him any of their supposedly advanced techniques, but they did give him some advice for his Suiton manipulation, which was to churn his chakra from within the snow pile. As much as he wanted to say he was thankful for their advice, he could of lived without the cruel teasing from Fubuki, and Nadare's habit for rubbing his head was giving him more headaches than trying to count falling snow.

He made it up to three hundred and seventy four snow clumps before he felt his brain shut down.

At the end of the week he showed Dotou-sensei all that he learned, hoping the man would praise him with his results. Instead of getting absolute praise, he was commented on how he did much better than some of the academy students, who took about two weeks to a month minimum to even get as far as he had with both chakra manipulations, but still said he needed to practice until he could cut through the icicle and freeze/liquify the snow in a few seconds. Dotou-sensei even did the exercise with him, showing him that, the more he practiced on it, the easier, faster, and more deadly simply channeling those chakras through his fist or weapon could be.

"Think Naruto," Dotou said after he finished freezing the pile of snow in front of him, "think of the results of you doing this to a human via full skin contact with this aspect of Suiton chakra control? Their limbs, internal organs, or maybe their bones shall be useless unless they're treated within a few minutes. If you're skilled enough, you could make their arms or legs become frostbitten and must be removed forever. Not even the best puppeteers from Suna could give them a functioning limb!"

After practicing more chakra control exercises, Dotou-sensei told him that there was no specific combat style to learn in Yuki no Kuni, and most likely never would be while he was in charge. Instead, he began to train him to dodge, intercept, and look for any openings within an opponent's guard that he could take advantage of. That way, whenever he got a sensei for a Genin team, he would be a blank slate for them to work with, or to simply let him continue with how he was. He was, thanks to Mizore's help with his kunai and shuriken throwing, he was able to intercept a few of Dotou's strikes, but still couldn't dodge more than three attempts, and there was no way for him to get past his sensei's guard at the moment. He wasn't taught any ninjutsu that day, since he still needed to get a better grasp of chakra control before practicing, but he was dedicated to impress Dotou-sensei, since he had a feeling that, if he started to waver, something bad would happen.

From that day forward, Naruto was told to meet up with Dotou two times a week, Wednesday and Saturday, while using Sunday as his break day to relax. The problem was, he felt well enough to do more training, but didn't wish to anger his sensei. So, he walked around Yuki no Kuni and hoped to find Fubuki and her teammates to hang out with them, only to not see them at all. Two hours later, he found himself at the capital's ninja academy, since he wondered how they taught their ninja hopefulls to be in this different enviorment. He walked in and asked the secretary if he could get a small tour of the place, explaining how he was training under Dotou-sensei, but wanted to see the academy's style of teaching. The secretary gave him a detailed tour, explaining how each class, which was separated by their affinities, had around fifty students, each explaining a particular chakra element and its properties before training them to handle their affinities. Each class would go to another affinity class ever hour an a half to learn about the positives and negatives of their unique affinity coming across the next one, and taught them offensive or defensive jutsu to the older students in the classes.

They had a lunch period that was around one in the afternoon, as well as a regular weapon expertise class and a fuuinjutsu course. Those two classes could only be taken either when you're a year away from graduating, or if you've finished your elemental chakra course early, something that rarely happened. When he asked about genjutsu and taijutsu training, the secretary explained that each class taught some taijutsu in them, though never enough to create a limiting style, and genjutsu was considered a limited art in Yuki no Kuni. When he asked what she meant, she went on to explain that there were only seven ninja in Yuki no Kuni who were considered genjutsu masters; however, not only were they constantly on missions outside of the country so the country could be stable, but most of the genjutsu they used were based upon either the snow or freezing temperatures, which apparently restricted their usefulness outside of Yuki no Kuni.

The last thing she asked of her was to point him to the library, only to explain that the library was something only shinobi of Yuki no Kuni could access, since there have been some cases of academy hopefulls taking a scroll and never returning it, only to take it with them when they leave the country. He thanked her before leaving the academy, and couldn't help but to compare this academy to the one in Konoha, his birthplace.

In Konoha's academy, you only learned the standard academy taijutsu, unless you belonged to a clan, then you'd learn their unique style. This gave clan raised children an advantage over the civilians, a fact that was widely known, and caused the parents of said civilians to buy outrageous weapons for them, such as swords or crossbows. In terms of ninjutsu, again, only those clan raised had any chance of learning anything damaging, as the academy only taught the Bunshin, Henge, and the Kawarimi no Jutsu, since those were the "standard" jutsu every ninja had to perform well in order to graduate from the academy. No genjutsu was taught, though this seemed to be because every class was intent on teaching history and basic strategies for them to learn, rather than trying to find out what they can truly do with jutsu.

This academy, on the other hand, was more militaristic, he believed was the word Jiji described everything dealing with a serious shinobi plan, as it separated everyone via their elemental affinity. It made him wonder if those who had a strong secondary affinity as they got older were forced to learn in a new class until they mastered it, or if they took a new class for whatever their affinities could create. Still, he had to admit, the students were hard workers, as he saw the older students fight against one another with jutsu that could of been D, possibly even C-ranked, something that the academy would of never allowed for them to do in school. The fact that they didn't learn genjutsu was a bit frightening, since it wasn't because they wanted the students to learn history, but because the few shinobi that COULD use them well enough were gone. He also had to wonder if there were any seal masters, since there was the fuuinjutsu course that was open to be taken, but forgot to ask the secretary. So, in terms of basic genin strength, Yuki no Kuni had Konoha beat, though Konoha had Yuki beat in terms of ninja. Despite the numbers, there was one thing that he considered made this country better than Konoha's shinobi academy.

Their treatment of him.

Naruto, never once during his time in the academy, got one of his questions answered with such detail, let alone the hundreds he must of asked the senseis in class. He had a feeling that, if he was actually a student here, he wouldn't be ridiculed by his classmates, nor would they try to keep all of the other kids away from him either. Then there was the fact that each student seemed to get an equal amount of attention in these classes, whereas the clan heads, as well as some of the rather smart people in class, such as Sakura, were always called upon to answer simple question, unless they called on him. When it was _his_ turn, they asked him hard questions, as well as gave him a limited time to answer them, which he knew wasn't fair. He did like the idea of a time limit though, since ninjas always did things quickly, so the faster they can research and go through their brain for the right information and reply, the better that ninja could think in a battle situation.

_'See, I CAN have a smart thought every once and a while!' _Naruto laughed to himself before thinking back to the rest of his training.

Naruto trained by himself for the remainder of August, though he went to train with his sensei when he was required to show his progress with his elemental chakra. He didn't get to do much with Dotou-sensei other than to practice taijutsu with him, but he did say that he was working on something special just for him. Hearing this caused Naruto to work twice as hard during his off days, and managed to freeze a pile of snow half his size thanks to all of his training. His Fuuton training was nearly complete, well, with that one exercise, though he did take the time to try the chakra exercise with smaller icicles, and found that he had to lower the amount he forced into them if he wanted them to be split in half, rather than having the icicle shatter like broken glass.

During the middle of September, Naruto awoke to find Fubuki, Mizore, and Nadare looking through his kitchen for some food to eat, causing him to freak out and nearly threw a kunai at the three. The only reason he didn't was because Nadare decided it would be fun to push Fubuki towards him, making her collide into him and made the two fall. With her on top of him, she pushed further by asking if he liked the view, pointing out how her breasts were pressed up to his stomach. All he could do was blush and slid off of her, before glaring at the three, who were laughing at his reaction.

Apparently, the three were sent on a mission to deliver an important scroll to a place Naruto wasn't allowed to know. "Its a surprise." Was what Nadare said, though the smirk on his face told Naruto that he was keeping it from him on purpose. The only thing he knew about their mission was that, if everything went well, that the fate of Yuki no Kuni would change forever, but that didn't make him feel any better about being kept out of the loop. What did make him feel better was the jutsu Nadare taught him, the **Suiton: Kokuun no Jutsu**, a jutsu that worked best when used in conjunction with a Katon, Raiton, or a Youton jutsu, though Naruto knew that coming across a Youton user was slim to none.

**Suiton: Kokuun no Jutsu** allowed him to create clouds of oil that would release oil rain upon his opponents, allowing for someone else to take advantage of the flammable substance and cause a wildfire with ease. It caused him to wonder would the potency of the jutsu be diminished if he used the jutsu to mix with an existing storm cloud, though he knew it would be ages before he could put his thought into action. He was taken to one of the outdoor training facilities in order to practice the jutsu, since he didn't wish to stain his room with the oil, and was told how to perform the jutsu. He had to channel his chakra around the tenketsu that were located around his shoulders, Suiton chakra if he was skilled enough to use it, and force it into a mist around his body.

This mist, once released, would instantly begin evaporating into the sky, and form a oil cloud that would release a downpour of oil upon the targeted area. The first ten or so times Naruto tried to use the jutsu ended with him causing the cloud of rain upon himself and Nadare, who was only a few steps behind him. When he tried it again, he tried to focus on the area he wanted the cloud to form, only for nothing to show up. The last time he tried it, mostly due to him wanting to try and get in some more practice with his Suiton and Fuuton chakra control, he found himself creating a cloud, a big, monstrous cloud that would be perfect if they ever had to burn an enemy field to the ground.

From there, he continued to practice with his regular chakra control exercise, and found himself able to run on the walls as if he was standing on the ground, a major improvement to him. His next exercise was to create chakra skates, which meant he had to use his chakra to form a curved edge around his shoes and skate across a field of ice. The curved edge reminded him of his Fuuton chakra exercise, since he had to press his chakra through the crevice of the icicle, and tried to apply that idea to this exercise. He was rewarded with himself being shot high into the air and falling on his butt, causing him to scratch that idea for further use. He did learn from the scroll that, when mastered, the user could use this coating of chakra to add devastating damage to their opponents, since the chakra blade would stab into them, as well as potentially breaking bones in the process, if not cause major bleeding.

It would be the end of September that Naruto would add another jutsu for his use, the **Mizu Bunshin**, given to him by one of Yuki no Kuni's Chuunin, Warari Suki, an exiled nin from Kiri who was wanted for killing a Kumo ninja without the approval from the Mizukage. She was 6'4 and wore the standard Yuki uniform, with the exception of a pair of leg warmers altered to hold scrolls, and had light brown eyes. How he got the jutsu was interesting, as he walked into the lunch room and overheard her talking about the usefulness of clones, while another ninja said that they weren't worth learning, since what good could a simple Bunshin do?

He learned that the Mizu Bunshin could easily be made, but only had a tenth of the strength their creator would have, a trait Naruto wasn't too happy to learn about. He was interested when Suki talked of how each of the major countries had their own Bunshin technique, such as the Suna Bunshin, a unique Bunshin that is known only to those in Suna, while the Iwa Bunshin is a bit more known to those that are allied to Iwa. Each Bunshin also has a slight advantage, such as the Iwa's physical attacks would hurt more since its made of hard stone, while the Suna clone is more useful to trap the enemy by allowing the opponent to sink into the clone. After hearing what she said, he went and politely asked her to teach him the Mizu Bunshin, hoping to have the ability to swarm his opponents with the jutsu, even going as far as to letting the clones become puddles as far as possible so he could, once able to, use the water to use Hyoton jutsu from a distance.

It didn't take long for him to learn the jutsu, since his chakra control improved enough for him to create three clones on the second try. While he was still having trouble with both Suiton chakra control exercises, as well as his new Fuuton exercise, he was glad to see that all of his training was actually helping him, especially with the balanced diet he got from the lunch hall, and the exercises Dotou-sensei made him do during his training. He thanked Suki for her help that day and proceeded to create Mizu Bunshins, wanting to see how many he could create at a single setting, as well as test the distance the Bunshins could stay complete before they were forced to disperse.

The first of the nine days of October were rather lacking, as Dotou-sensei had to cancel their weekly meetings in order to take care of something that dealed with a secret project that was for the benefit of Yuki no Kuni. While he was happy to hear that something good would happen, he was annoyed that his sensei didn't give him any jutsu or chakra control exercises to work on! The same thing happened with Fubuki and her team, making him feel alone and saddened that he had no one he knew to talk with. He used as much of his time as possible to train, only taking a break to eat lunch or to allow his chakra to replenish itself a bit before continuing with his training. There were times where he took it too far, such as experimenting with the **Kokuun no Jutsu** to see if it would add oil into the Mizu Bunshins via its rain drops. If it did, then he could infect them with the oil, allow the opponent to destroy the clones, and use an exploding tag to catch them aflame, a wicked combo in his opinion. He took his training too far by creating a cloud of oil that went past his training field, causing three additional training fields to be soaked in oil, one of which were in use by a pair of Chuunin. He did find out that the Mizu Bunshins could absorb the oil, but, since he didn't have any explosive notes or knew any Katon jutsu, he couldn't see how large the explosions would be.

The second day was spent training physically, as he ran around the training field at least fifty times that day, ten laps every two hours, followed by a small series of push ups and sit ups. He used this time to try and perfect his second regular chakra excercise, though he knew that he'd have to put an entire day's worth of training into that exercise alone. He was glad to see that his punches and kicks were giving off more of an impact when he struck the straw dummies in the indoor training field, since the outdoor fields had no training dummies, but he was annoyed that he didn't have anyone to help him practice his dodging, intercepting, and spot weak points with an opponent's guard, but he channeled his annoyance into eating a meal worthy of three men at the lunch hall, earning him some praise from the other ninjas and civilians there at that moment.

Naruto didn't waste time the next day, as he put his entire day into completing his Fuuton chakra exercise. He even took the time to practice the Fuuton exercise on smaller icicles, since he knew that the smaller he could go, the more control it meant he had. By the time it hit three o'clock that day, he managed to make a stable pair of chakra skates, but he didn't know how to skate, since Konoha rarely had frozen lakes. With that in mind, he sought out one of the Chuunin that weren't busy to teach him how to skate, only to be pointed to one of the main shops past the lunch hall, as it sold instruction manuels for ice skating. He went to the suggested shop and went to purchase the book, only to be pointed to a chakra control scroll for creating chakra spikes for his feet.

These spikes would keep his feet firmly in place for the large slabs of ice that Yuki no Kuni were known to have outside of the capital, and were necessary if someone wanted to climb up one of the famous ice mountains in their country. Again, the dangerous aspects of this chakra control exercise were brought to his mind, as he imagined himself stepping on someone's foot while having that chakra exercise active. Most of the foot would be rendered useless, and he was sure that at least two, maybe three toes would be forced off depending on what part of the foot he stepped on. The shop owner offered both for four thousand yen, lowering the price down by three thousand, since the ice skates had a two year warrinty, and the chakra exercise was a highly recommended one from various famed ninja from the Elemental Nations. As soon as he purchased and thanked the shop owner, he hurried outside to train as much as he could in both the skates and the chakra spikes, since he quickly found out that the lower the sun was, the colder it got in Yuki no Kuni.

He didn't get much practice with either the chakra control exercise or ice skating, so he spent the forth day practicing in both, and found himself getting the hang of ice skating, and nearly perfected the foot spikes exercise. As the day was about to end, he figured that practicing his small jutsu collection wouldn't hurt, and saw that he doubled the amount of Mizu Bunshins he made, as the the amount for three Mizu Bunshins created six, causing him to get excited about his improvements. It was then that he realized that he DID have some training partners, a constant slew of them just waiting to be destroyed over and over again. He used the Mizu Bunshins as his fighting partners for the fifth day, and made each use icicles as kunai, mostly so he would have to use his senses more for dodging rather than his sight to make constant head counts of the clones.

Using the Mizu Bunshins was one of his best ideas yet, as he could fight against his clones for _nearly_ two hours, _nearly_ being a key word due to him taking a minute or three to create a new batch of clones. He also used his Fuuton and Suiton chakra control exercises during the spar, and saw the results that Dotou-sensei spoke of weeks ago. With his Fuuton exercise, even though it wasn't perfected, he saw that, when applied with his hands, the limb of the clone would be separated with ease, sometimes even pushing the rest of the body away from him while doing significant damage. As for the damage the Suiton exercises did, it might of been due to the nature of the Mizu Bunshins, but they froze with ease, reminding him of ice sculptures before he or one of the other clones destroyed them. When he applied the other Suiton chakra control, using his chakra to melt the snow to liquify it, it gave his hands a slight protective coating of chakra to his fists, and acted like a suction cup when he punched a clone, as it would be pulled with his limb. He assumed this was because of the clones being made of water, but he would have to try it out against Fubuki or her teammates, if he ever got the chance to ask them. He managed to take advantage of this unique trait of the chakra exercise by going for a shoulder or the head of a clone and pulled them backwards, causing the clone to fall or stumble, allowing him to kill them with a kunai or with a good hit.

He used the sixth day to relax and read, since that day was a Sunday, though he took the time to talk to the shop owner and Suki, who praised him on his usage of Mizu Bunshin, and gave him advice with his training. Most of their advice were things he briefly thought of, such as using the chakra control exercises as a battle style, or Suki's suggestion to use the clones as an ambush aid, especially if he trained himself to use a large weapon or something with an extended reach, such as a bow and arrow or a whip, and have the clones use them to kill his enemies. He even took the time to use the TV he ignored in his room to watch several movies, a first, since the TV he had in Konoha only had some static filled channels.

Without anything more to work on, Naruto used the seventh and eighth days to work on his chakra control, something that he realized he couldn't improve much more on. Yes, he was able to cut icicles the size of his pinky in half, and freeze snow piles the size of his hand in a few seconds, so he figured his next goal would be to be able to freeze multiple targets, cut multiple icicles in perfect halves, and, once researched a bit, try to extend his chakra out to multiple areas and use the chakra to freeze or cut up targets from a distance. For all he knew, there were jutsu that existed that would send his chakra outwards from the ground up, though the only thing he could think of were the Nara clan's shadow jutsu, who lived in Konoha, which made asking advice from there impossible.

His ninth day was spent walking around the capital, visiting various shops he never thought to look into, as well as the academy, if only to see if he could get some sight of some jutsu that would work for him and his style of fighting. Well, he didn't have a style per say, but he had a feeling that he'd be more of a distance fighter with some close ranged moves, since he enjoyed the way his chakra control exercises did such damage to his clones. He stuck gold when he overheard one of the senseis in class throughly explain the **Fuuton: Renkuudan**, a Fuuton jutsu that required him to churn the air he breathes in into his chest, and slap his stomach, expelling the air into a compressed ball of air. Apparently, if he adds Fuuton chakra into the jutsu, not only would it make it faster, but would also add a whole new level of destruction, as some witnesses have commented several small tornados forming within the jutsu. However, despite wanting to try out the jutsu for himself, he knew better than to try out such a dangerous jutsu without Dotou-sensei, Fubuki, or one of her teammates to help him practice the jutsu.

So, here he was, on the tenth day, a day that made him feel even worse than normal, not because of what it meant, but because this time there was something different about today. When before, people would openly harass him upon the streets of Konoha, most shop owners would claim they were closed for the day when civilians were still shopping, and the rare Genin level shinobi or three would Henge as him in order to get him in trouble, he knew that today, the day he turned eight years old, would be different, but not because he was away from the harm that Konoha brought him. No, he knew it would be different because he had friends here, a sensei that was proud of him, and a content feeling with how he lived in a place he wasn't born in.

Yuki no Kuni felt more like a home than Konoha ever did, and he was truly saddened that he would be spending his eigth birthday on his own, just like when he was younger, but worst, as he had no one to talk to.

_'Well, it won't be so bad...'_ Naruto sat on his couch and turned on the TV._ 'I can relax today and make this a movie day. Hell, I'll even go out and buy myself a subscription to that manga mangazine I've taken a liking to lately. Its the least I could do for myself.'_ He scrolled through the various channels, only to see that there was nothing worth watching at the moment. It was the morning, so all that was on were various news stations speaking of foreign affairs, something Naruto wasn't truly interested in, and got dressed to hit up the shop for his manga subscription. Right as he opened his door to leave...

BANG!

BANG!

"Surprise!" Naruto found himself falling on his butt, his face covered in ripped pieces of colored paper, and saw Fubuki, Mizore, and Nadare standing in front of his room with some small boxes in hand. He couldn't stop them from walking into his room and putting the small boxes on his couch, but he was able to find his voice and yelled at them to leave his fridge alone.

"Oh, but don't you want to keep the ice cream we got for you cold?" Naruto didn't know what was worse. The fact that it was Mizore that asked it, since he was the quiet member of the group, or the fact that Naruto nearly drooled at the fact of having ice cream. It was one of those small pleasures in life he never got to experience, especially since the kids in Konoha usually had a sibling or parent to buy them some and joked about the mess they'd make, so he wasn't too quick to tell him no.

"We figured you'd see it our way Naru-chan." Fubuki slapped him on the back and gave him a bone crunching hug. "I've missed you so much brat! So much I could kill you." Naruto squirmed under her grasp, escaping at the last moment when he thought he would die due to lack of air, and found himself sitting back on the couch. Luckily, he wasn't sitting on the boxes the three brought in, or else he would of found himself facing their combined wrath.

"So, aren't you gonna open your gifts Naruto?" Nadare pointed out to him. Naruto noticed that, after looking at the boxes once more, that they had bows on them, usually a key indicator that they were a gift of some sort, and turned to them.

"These are...for me?"

"Of course they are brat!" Fubuki and Nadare shouted at the same time. Their reactions once they realized they spoke in synch made Naruto laugh more than he did during the previous month, though he couldn't help but to tear up at what they did. He never, never got gifts from friends during his stay in Konoha. Sure, Jiji gave him some clothes and two sets of kunai and shuriken, and a free month pass for ramen at Ichiraku Ramen, but he never got anything from other children.

"Hey brat, are you okay?" Naruto looked up to see Fubuki slightly frowning at him.

"I-I'm fine Fubuki." Naruto paused, thinking about what he said before shaking his head. "No, I'm better than fine. I'm happy that today is my birthday! So can I really open these gifts guys?" Once he was sure that he had the ok, he opened the smallest, which was about as thick as his two arms pressed together, and saw that it was from Mizore. His gift was a forty pack of kunai and shuriken that had some cold resistant wires attached to each weapon, a useful attachment since he was sure that he could use the wires as a trip line.

Nadare got him several gifts, most of them being new clothes of various colors, as well as a few pairs of shirts and shorts for the off chance he goes to the Elemental Nations with Dotou-sensei or with them. The best gift from him was a Fuuton jutsu called, **Fuuton: Daitoppa**, which sent a large gust of wind at the user's opponents. Depending on how much chakra is placed into the jutsu, he could take down multiple trees, or ignite the wind with ease, which meant he found a way to successfully use his oil Mizu Bunshins. The last gift he got for him was a pair of special sunglasses, a required tool in Yuki no Kuni due to the glare the snow reflects from the sun. There have been cases of people getting blind due to looking at such things, and there were many times Naruto came close to blinding himself.

Fubuki's gifts were much more special, as she got him a light blue headband that had a kanji that stood for Apprentice on it, which he put across his right shoulder. He also got a miniature pine tree, something to keep him occupied while she and her teammates were gone, a few books about basic fuuinjutsu, and promised him that she'd teach him some jutsu once she got the okay from Dotou-sensei. The thought of learning more jutsu excited him, just as much as the thought of being a powerful ninja that would make a legend for future ninjas to remember him by.

His final gift was an oddity, since it made no sense for him at that moment, and caused him to look at the three in confusion. "_Medical training for a shinobi: Genin to Chuunin level_?" Naruto asked.

"Yea, with all the chakra control exercises Dotou-sensei has you practicing, Mizore here figured it would be good for you to learn how to be able to heal yourself, especially if you're paired with a pair of reckless individuals like I am." Nadare and Mizore shouted in protest, causing him and Fubuki to laugh at their reactions. It made sense, though he honestly never thought of what medics actually did other than provide medicines and shots to make someone feel better. Then again, it didn't help that most of the time he ever went to the hospital when he was actually able to remember thing he was nearly unconscious from one thing or another.

Healing wasn't something he was truly interested in, mostly since he truly didn't want to remember all of the complicated words and steps that came with healing. He knew that most medics saved many lives, including the medic-nins that were placed on Chuunin shinobi teams, but he didn't feel like it was his calling. Still, he thanked the two and promised himself he'd read the book, and hope to see some type of jutsu recommendations waiting for him somewhere in those pages.

"If you learn enough from it, I'll teach you a jutsu that saved me many times Naruto." Mizore's comment hooked Naruto into reading the book, only for it to be pulled away from him at the last second.

"You have enough time to read this flimsy thing later Naruto!" Nadare threw it with the rest of Naruto's gifts and pulled the blond to him. "Now," He extended his arm and pointed to Dotou-sensei's castle, which was near the northern wall from his apartment's location, "we go visit sensei for your other gifts!"

"Sensei has gifts for me?" Naruto asked with a big grin on his face. This was already the best birthday he ever had, but now he was getting something from his sensei as well? This was truly a day to remember! There was nothing, truly NOTHING that could ruin this day for him, Uzumaki Naruto! "Can we leave right now?"

"Long way or short way Naru-chan?" Not even Fubuki's nickname for him lowered his bright, cheery mood. He said the long way, mostly to get a start on reading the medical book she and Mizore got for him, and was met with a series of nods. As they walked out of the room, Naruto took one last glance at his gifts, the fridge completely filled with different ice creams, and locked the door. Yep, today was the best day of his life, and he still had an afternoon and evening to go through!

If only he knew the fate that awaited him when he reached Dotou's castle.

-Author's Note-

Not exactly a long time no see everyone, but hiya none the less! As usual, I don't own Naruto, never will, and never want to. With that out of the way, lets begin, shall we?

This chapter is mostly filled with a small chornological order of what has happened ever since he accepted Dotou's offer to become a citizen of Yuki no Kuni, and it has had its benefits for him. As you can see, he is learning at a steady rate, has met with recognition on a positive level from its citizens and shop owners, and has learned much during the two months of his stay. Yes, I personally believe that chakra control exercises can be a deadly thing, and I intend to show some of their more deadly aspects with it. Could you imagine using the Water Walking exercise with a Fuuton chakra infused kick? The tidal waves made by it would be impressive, unless the user spun around while channeling enough chakra to create a typhoon and guides it towards a port town or a civilization near a lake.

Moving on...

Naruto has learned much during his training, most from his own creativity, while some has been given to him by either asking (Suki and Nadare), by improving (Dotou), or simply by being there (the shop owner). Not everything he wants to do or try can be done at the moment, since a Kami Naruto isn't exactly a fun one to write, but he will be an interesting character, that is for sure. As you can see, he is already trying to figure out what kind of shinobi he shall be, front line attacker or support for example, and he is stuck between picking between them. I'm honestly not sure if there ARE ice skates in the Naruto universe, but I'm more than sure that there could be, especially in Yuki no Kuni.

I apologize to those who were wanting a scene with Konoha in it, but I wanted to cover Naruto's training, mostly since he will rarely get left alone in this story until he is older. A Konoha scene will most likely show up in the next chapter, and I might actually consider Gai a serious replacement for Sarutobi, not spoiling if canon events shall happen or not, but it is still something to get the minds blending.

As for reviewers:

**Firefly25:** Thank you for your review and the points you have brought up. The Henge trait will most likely stick with Naruto, though I'm also intrigued with pairing it up with a Kitsune trait. Pranking might happen in Yuki no Kuni, but I actually have an idea where Naruto can channel his inner prankster/trap master. Oh, and he WILL be coming across some interesting technology, though it coming from Yuki's research and development might not happen. Lets just say there are some other investers intertested in Yuki's future.

**KnightofZaku:** Honestly, I'm not too sure if I want the Koyuki mission to go anywhere as near as canon went, though it will have obvious canon elements. If Sasuke does go on that mission, and if he does do something against Fubuki or any of Naruto's close friends, lets just say that a true storm will fall upon those allied with Sasuke.

**Rixxell Stryfe:** You write some of the most fantastic reviews, do you know that? Moving on, Takigakure will have an important role, though its fate will be much different than that of canon's Taki. I do have a reason for the change of the canon conversation Sarutobi had with Itachi, though its impact to the storyline might seem little in comparison to everything else that shall be done. As to why he would consider Danzo, he is loyal to the protection of the Leaf, will stick himself out if necessary, and will not allow emotional attachments to sway him from the necessary evils of the world. He is the last choice, the all or nothing pick from hell, but it is always an option to go the Danzo route. And yes, he will have a roommate or two, maybe three if I can work around a particular edge, but I will not spoil who they are so soon.

Again, thank you three for your reviews, and I hope my other readers will join in and tell me some of their imputs for this story. Your views count as well, so no need to be shy. Until next time everyone!


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